Guy Fawkes Eve
by hauntedd
Summary: Shannon and Claire friendship piece, surrounding Halloween.


Title: Guy Fawkes Eve  
Author: hauntedd  
Email: Pairing: Shannon/Claire friendship  
Rating: PG  
Disclaimer: Yeah, they're not mine.  
Summary: Claire and Shannon talk about Halloween. I'm not australian, but I checked a few websites to see what's up first.

"Hey Shannon, what's on your mind?" Claire asked as she sat down next to Shannon. She'd wanted to do talk to Shannon for days now, but this was the first opportunity she'd had, between Charlie and Aaron.

Shannon brushed a stray hair out of her face and turned toward Claire, glad she hadn't brought Aaron with her. It was nothing personal, but she wasn't child friendly. "It's Halloween" she informed the shorter girl, who looked puzzled. "You know, candy, costumes, witches, kids tp-ing the neighborhood?"

"Oh, you mean Guy Fawkes Eve? It's not really a big deal in Australia."

"Oh" Shannon sighed, disinterested in the cultural intricacies of Australian culture. It wasn't that she was uncouth, she just missed having that immediate connection with someone that came from having a shared frame of reference.

"Do you want to throw a party or something?" Claire asked, determined not to let the conversation drop. There was something about Shannon, and she wanted to get to know her better, especially now that Boone was gone.

"God no, I hate Halloween" she scoffed, and groaned inwardly at the hurt forming in Claire's eyes. What was it Locke had said? The island was a new start. It was the only advice she'd take from him, considering his role in Boone's death.

Boone. That was a sore subject. He'd been gone for almost two weeks now, and the only one to actually talk about it with her was Sayid. She wasn't stupid, she didn't have that many friends here, so she shouldn't be looking a gift horse in the mouth.

"Halloween is bullshit" she continued. "It's the one day of the year that it's okay to put on a mask and act like someone you're not, you know, on the inside. But the thing is, we wear masks everyday, no one ever really sees the real 'you', because no one bothers, you know?"

"I never really thought about it."

"Yes you have. You just don't realize it. What's the one thing you think people think of you?"

"That I'm the single mother" Claire answered, suddenly self conscious.

"Exactly!" Shannon exclaimed. "You're the mom, I'm the bitch. Everyone's got their role. And it sucks. I mean look at Kate, she's a criminal, but she fills the useful female chick role and everyone forgets that."

"I guess, but Kate did deliver my baby, she's not all bad," Claire argued. For all of Kate's flaws, she had been there for her and Aaron, which was important to her.

"That's the point, though. If we didn't know her here, she would have just been a fugitive. And if Sawyer hadn't outed her, we would have just thought she was some do-it yourself feminist. But Kate is probably both of those things, as well as a million other things. People just don't get to know one another anymore. And Halloween glorifies it, you know, the one dimensional."

Claire waited until Shannon finished, idly wondering if anyone knew that underneath the superficiality, Shannon was actually sentimental. "So, Shannon, what's the one thing that you wish people knew about you?"

"I wish I had a friend who was just there for me." She sighed and rolled her eyes at the lameness of her answer. "I didn't really have that many of them, back home."

"Most of mine stopped talking to me after I got pregnant. Twenty-one with a bun in the oven doesn't exactly make you the first person on a call back list."

Shannon paused, realizing that she would probably have been one of those friends, if it wasn't for the island, out of self preservation. That had been important to her then, having a dangerous lifestyle. But now that she'd lived through a plane crash and her brother's death, it wasn't as important. "Yeah" she sighed, feeling a slight pang of guilt.

"The island isn't much better. After Ethan, everyone avoided me and wouldn't tell me the truth. Except you." She winced as she heard Aaron's cries in the distance, sighing, she got up from her place in the sand, "Great, he's hungry."

"You better get to him, before Charlie does something stupid."

Claire opened her mouth to defend him, but thought better of it. "You're not alone you know."

"Even if I'm the crazy witch with the visions and the dead brother?"

"I told you, we don't really celebrate Guy Fawkes Eve in Australia." Claire replied with a wink, and caught a slight trace of a smile on Shannon's features before walking away.


End file.
